Composition and Arrangement
C.C. has long been a lover of music, learning his first piano piece, Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin, at age 10. Since then, she has spent 10+ years singing with professional voice coaches learning everything from musical theatre to opera. She was a music director and arranger for the UMBC Cleftomaniacs a cappella group during her time in undergrad and has arranged two pieces for professional competition at the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella. C.C. plays both piano and bass guitar proficiently, and spends much of their free time exploring new sounds in Logic Pro and/or Musescore, or collecting guitar pedals in the endless search for that perfect crunchy tone. Below is a small sampling of their compositional and arranging skills. You can find more of their published scores on Musescore.
Copyright for for all below documents and audio belongs to C.C. Gallagher, see here
Lilly Dreaming
This virtuosic violin solo is intended to evoke the imagery of a cool Spring turned suddenly into a harsh Summer storm. I was heavily inspired by Paganini’s 24 Caprices for Solo Violin and wanted to let counter melodies shine through use of the dorian and octatonic scales.
Lilly Dreaming MIDI playback as provided by Musescore 4
Journey: from a Waltz
I wrote this clarinet solo based off an old waltz melody from several years prior, translating it into 4/4 where I thought it was best-served. It was my hope to let the clarinet really show off its impressive range of dynamics and colors, utilizing the octatonic scale to create variation upon the main theme. I have dedicated this piece to my classmate Ryan, who frequently inspired me to push myself further and believe in my original ideas.
Live recording of Journey: from a Waltz – anonymous player
A Late Rehearsal for “Butterfly Waltz”
Trial by Dissonance for Three Unlikely Instruments
I created this humorous piece towards the end of a music composition class with the intention of fully embracing the three unusual instruments which were at our disposal at the time. This is an experimental piece of musical theatre which asks three instrumentalists to do their best to sound like amateurs; a musical “goes wrong show,” of sorts. The score asks a cellist and two flautists to emulate a poorly organized ensemble’s attempt at playing the fictional piece “Butterfly Waltz.”
Live recording of A Late Rehearsal for “Butterfly Waltz” – anonymous ensemble
Work in Progress
Here is a short excerpt from a concept I have been toying with over the past year. I like to think of this as the midsection of a classically inspired piano sonata or maybe a choral piece, since I am thinking of the parts as 4 lines and notating in SATB structure so far.
Sample MIDI playback as provided by Musescore 4
C.C. Gallagher 